Brussels, 13/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - Franco Frattini, Vice-President of the European Commission, has strongly condemned the fact that a conference on the reality of the Holocaust , that the Iranian president recently described as a “myth”, is to be held in Tehran, on 11 and 12 December. Frattini publicly expressed his “shock and indignation” in relation to the organisation of the conference which, he believes, “puts the Holocaust into question”. Generally speaking, he also condemned any attempt to deny, trivialise or minimise the Shoah, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He criticised and rejected all manifestations of anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia. Finally, Frattini hoped that the 2001 framework decision on combating racism and xenophobia would be adopted under German Presidency. Entitled “Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision”, the conference brings together European academics and researchers, anti-Zionist rabbis and the former Republican representative of Louisiana, David Duke, who heads the Ku Klux Klan. The conference in Tehran comes shortly after the organisation of a competition of cartoons on the Holocaust, the Iranian response to the famous “Danish cartoon” affair that had distressed the Muslim world with cartoons of Mahomet. (bc)